Man Utd frozen out, with huge double deal sparking Aston Villa raid that’ll make Emery grin

Man Utd are the odd one out after two huge centre-back deals are paving the way for Aston Villa to complete a top tier signing, per reports.

The Red Devils are keen to sign an elite-level centre-half to compete with Raphael Varane, Lisandro Martinez and Victor Lindelof. Axuel Tuanzebe and Phil Jones will leave as free agents on Friday, while Man Utd will listen to offers for Harry Maguire and Eric Bailly.

Luke Shaw has proven himself more than capable of deputising at left centre-back, though a club the size of Man Utd need not be reliant on makeshift options.

To that end, United are known to have courted Napoli colossus, Kim Min-jae. The South Korean is coming off the back of a dominant season in Naples and the presence of a €50m (approx. £43m) release clause makes a transfer straightforward.

The clause can be activated during a two-week period from July 1-15. However, rather than Man Utd, it’s Bayern Munich who are best placed to sign Kim.

Bayern’s impending move for the 26-year-old is poised to assume greater significance given Lucas Hernandez is now in advanced talks with PSG.

Bayern had initially labelled Hernandez – who is the Bundesliga’s record buy at €80m – as ‘untouchable’.

However, according to Fabrizio Romano, Bayern told the France international to either sign a new deal or be sold and Hernandez chose a return to his home country with PSG.

A move has quickly taken shape and Bayern are on course to replace Hernandez with Man Utd target, Kim Min-jae.

Bayern’s back-up option to Kim is Villarreal’s Pau Torres who is also being courted by Aston Villa. However, with Bayern set to sign Kim at Man Utd’s expense, the pathway will soon clear for Villa to snare Torres.

Villa boss Unai Emery knows Torres well through their time at Villarreal. Torres, 26, has 23 caps to his name for Spain and the left-footer would slot straight into Emery’s strongest eleven.

Romano echoed the claims Aston Villa are chasing Torres, tweeting they’re “pushing” to get a deal done.

Football Insider previously detailed Villa’s interest in Torres one week ago, reporting a club-record £40m deal is in the works.

With Hernandez to PSG and Kim to Bayern leaving the door ajar for Villa to sign Torres, Emery may soon have an established and trusted new leader marshalling his defence.

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